Comcast-NBC: Too Big to Merge

By admin

Created 11/09/2009 - 3:23pm

Amazing!

In less than a week, we have changed the media’s view on the Comcast-NBC merger. At first, the Associated Press, New York Times, Reuters, NPR and CNN said that the deal was as good as done. Now, thanks to our relentless push, they’re saying it faces a tough battle ahead as Washington responds to the public outcry.

Even the free-market fundamentalists on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board are calling us "consumer-protection alarmists" for so effectively gumming up the process!

The tides are shifting, thanks to the tens of thousands of people who joined our call to action below. But we can’t ease off the public pressure until this deal is stopped. A Comcast-NBC monolith would control as much as 20 percent of the communications landscape in the United States. That's just too big.

Please follow this link to support our call to action.

Thanks for all that you do,

Josh
Free Press Action Fund

Too Big to Merge

Cable and Internet giant Comcast has just announced that it's merging with NBC Universal to form one of the most powerful media companies in the world.

Washington and Wall Street are already saying this mega-merger is a done deal. If we don’t act now to stop it, we’ll have even more corporate control of our media, higher prices and fewer choices — online and on TV.

Help us get 100,000 people to tell President Obama to make good on his campaign pledge to act "against the excessive concentration of [media] power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group." It’s time for the president to keep his promise.

Sign our call to action — and we will deliver your demands to the president, as well as to decision makers at the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission who have the power to stop this merger.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company and the second largest Internet provider, would merge with one of the world’s biggest producers of TV shows and movies. Here’s what this merger would mean for you:

* Higher Prices: With Comcast in control of everything from MSNBC, Bravo and E! to Universal Pictures — in addition to their huge Internet business — they’ll be able to raise prices for their competitors that will be passed on to you.
* Fewer Choices: Comcast would have a near-media monopoly in some communities, controlling cable and Internet access as well as local TV stations. They could push NBC shows ahead of other local and independent voices and programs, making it even harder to find alternatives on cable.
* Less Innovation: This merged goliath could control what you watch and how you watch it, starving online video competitors or making you subscribe to Comcast to watch TV on the Internet.

This merger is a dangerous attempt by media moguls to seize control of both media content and distribution, and to use this control to squeeze consumers.

Stop the Merger: Join Us at FreePress.net/Comcast

With your help, we can give consumers a voice and keep this doomed marriage from ever reaching the altar.